


Tides will bring me back to you

by Flutterbeam (aretia)



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, takes place after 1x06
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 14:43:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4568376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/Flutterbeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared needs comfort and care when he gets back from Peter Gregory’s automated island, and it comes from an unlikely source: Richard, who's confident about dealing with a nervous wreck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tides will bring me back to you

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Bring Me the Horizon song “Deathbeds.” I wanted to write something with a trendy lyric title, haha. This is not the most original idea but I haven’t seen fanfic that incorporates Zach Woods’s statement on how Jared got back from the island, so here's my attempt!

Maybe a horror movie wasn’t the best choice to get Richard’s mind off of work stress. Despite echoing self-doubt and the importance of time in the final hours before TechCrunch, he’d decided that he deserved a break, but it turned out he was too wired to enjoy it, less stressed about the work he wasn’t doing and more terrified that a ghost was in his house. He was alone in the incubator living room at night, heart pounding, eyes fixated on the screen—or on the reflection in the screen of what was actually happening behind him. The door to the house swung open and a pale figure entered. A finger tapped on his shoulder.

Richard jumped out of his skin. He pulled off his headphones, set down his laptop, and whirled around searching for something to use as a weapon before he realized it was Jared, although nearly unrecognizable with disheveled hair and stubble and wild eyes. 

“Jared! Holy fuck. Where the hell have you been for six days?” Richard exclaimed.

Jared approached him, hands shaking, spewing a stream of incoherent words. “Peter—car—shipping container—Adderall—island—seagull—” he stammered. Jared was having a panic attack. And Richard was surprised to find that he wasn’t. He felt like he was in control of the situation and knew what to do. He’d been on the other side of this many times before, usually with Jared helping him, and he knew enough about how to treat someone who was having a breakdown. It was the least he could do to try to help Jared calm down.

“Okay, uh. Are you hungry? Let me get you some food.” Jared looked even more pale and emaciated than usual, so Richard figured that was a good first step. Richard led Jared to the kitchen and poured him a glass of water, which Jared swallowed in one gulp. Then Richard made macaroni and cheese from a box. He was ashamed of his college dorm food, but to his astonishment Jared devoured all of it. Stranger still, he didn’t speak except to mutter a “Thanks” between bites. On a typical day, Jared would be gushing with gratitude at even being acknowledged. Something was seriously wrong. 

Richard sat down next to him at the dining table. “Can you tell me what happened now?” he asked gently. “If not, that’s okay.” He knew firsthand that speaking could be difficult in this kind of situation. 

Jared told his story with monotone voice and hollow eyes. “I got trapped in Peter Gregory’s self-driving car. It took me to the port, where it went inside a shipping container. I ended up on Peter’s man-made island. There were no people, only machines. I took Adderall to keep myself awake. My phone died in the shipping container, so I have no idea how long I was gone. Six days, you said? It felt like forever. Finally a Chinese trawler came by and rescued me. They brought me back to California, and four buses and a taxi later, I’m home.”

“Jesus, Jared. That’s awful,” Richard said. “Why did you come here, though? Why didn’t you go back to your place?” 

“I wanted to see how Pied Piper was doing,” Jared said. That was Jared, thinking of others even in his darkest time. 

“We’re doing fine,” Richard claimed. If “fine” meant they had wasted the last few days cleaning up the Carver’s mess and there was no way they were going to be ready for the TechCrunch presentation in a day. It was a lie but he assumed it was what Jared wanted to hear. Or maybe it wasn’t, judging by the frown that had appeared on Jared’s face.

“What’s even worse than being stranded on a robot island,” Jared whimpered, “is that I feel like you guys didn’t even notice I was gone.”

“Are you kidding? Of course we noticed. I hope you weren’t planning to use the bathroom, because these fucks can’t even remember to buy their own toilet paper without you,” Richard seethed. All his anger about how the other guys in the hacker hostel treated Jared was spilling out, and his assertive alter ego was ready to make one of his uncharacteristically coherent speeches. “After three days with no word from you, I started thinking about filing a missing persons report. But I didn’t, because I didn’t know how. You know who I would have asked? You. I—I mean, we—we need you. I’m sorry we made you feel like we didn’t, and that we didn’t help you out. I am so glad you’re back safe, Jared.” 

For the first time, a smile broke out across Jared’s trauma-stricken face. The smile touched his bloodshot eyes and made the blue shine out from the red circles.

“You should go home and get some sleep,” Richard advised. When he saw Jared curl up defensively in his chair, he added, “Or you can stay here and sleep. Whichever you want.” 

Jared lay down on the couch in the living room. Richard grabbed a blanket from his room and draped it over Jared. He picked up his laptop and relocated to the dining room table. He put on his headphones and got back to coding. In the transition between songs, he heard whimpering.

He returned to the living room and found Jared sobbing on the couch. “Jared? You can’t sleep?” he probed.

“Every time I close my eyes I see the seagull’s face,” Jared quavered.

“You keep going on about a seagull. I don’t understand,” Richard said.

Jared’s voice was so broken and high-pitched it was almost incomprehensible. “I killed it with my bare hands and ate it to survive,” he choked out. 

“Fucking hell, Jared,” Richard muttered. For some reason he felt an overwhelming desire to pat Jared’s head. He seemed like he needed it, and his hair looked so tousled and soft and nice to touch even though he hadn’t showered in a week. Richard went ahead and did it, and was relieved when Jared seemed comforted by the gesture, pressing his head into Richard’s palm. 

“Is there… anything I can do to help?” Richard asked. In the days when Jared was gone, he had started trying to take on his role of being attentive and nurturing towards the team. He wasn’t nearly as good at it, of course; for Jared it was a natural part of his personality, while for Richard it was effortful imitation of a trait he knew he lacked. But it would come in handy while Jared was recuperating. 

Jared pursed his lips, embarrassed to ask for anything. Richard looked at him expectantly. “Will you sit on the couch with me?” Jared pleaded softly.

Richard looked at Jared’s tall form sprawled out across the entire couch. “There’s no room.” Jared nodded his understanding of that fact. “Oh.” Richard retrieved his laptop and balanced it precariously on the arm of the couch. Jared propped himself up on his elbow, and Richard sat down in the open space. Jared laid his head in Richard’s lap. This was exceedingly weird, but so was what Jared had been through, so he tried to ignore the burning in his throat and in his cheeks and do whatever he could to help Jared. “Better?” he asked, swallowing hard.

“Mhm,” Jared sighed. He lay on his side with one hand cupped on Richard’s knee and his head settled on Richard’s thighs. He closed his eyes, and there was a small smile on his lips. 

Richard twisted his waist and tried to keep working on his computer, but then his elbow bumped Jared’s head and he didn’t want to wake him so he froze. Jared sleeping in his lap was distracting. He’d never thought beanpole Jared could look small, but he did, curled up on the couch so vulnerable and in need of protection. Richard couldn’t tear his eyes away from him and was overcome by a feeling of admiration for Jared. 

You are so resilient. You survived a week alone on an island in the middle of the ocean; no way I could do that. And then you come back here and all you want to know is if we’re doing okay. You’re safe now. I’ll make sure to appreciate you more from now on, because being without you was the worst thing that ever happened to this company. You’re very important and everyone should keep that in mind, most of all you.

“Thank you,” Jared murmured.

One, Richard didn’t mean to say all of that out loud. Two, he didn’t know Jared was awake. Three, it didn’t matter, because Jared deserved to hear that someone cared about him.


End file.
